[Bug-gnupedia] It's in your hands

[Jimmy Wales]

GNE community:

I've decided to stop campaigning, because I don't want my vigorous
campaigning to start _creating_ the kind of division that I hope to
avoid.  Hector and RMS will surely decide what they want to do, and I
will accept and support it, even if I don't totally agree that it is
the right way to go.  The most important thing is that we move
together in harmony.

I have a vision of a free encyclopedia.  It will not be a free
respository of random crap.  It will be a resource, translated into
every language of the world, and distributed through the cheapest
possible means, to empower every single person on the planet with
_knowledge_.  Knowledge of _facts_; a shining example of the power of
objectivity and reason in the service of human life on this earth.

It will be distributed over the web.  It will be printed up by private
companies, at the competitive price of the cost of paper, with no
licensing fees of any kind, and distributed even to remote villages
too poor to have electricity or clean water.

Somewhere, in some place that I have never seen nor heard of, there
will be born a great musician, a great artist, a great programmer.
And that person will be handed access to this encyclopedia, where he
or she will find in clear and concise fashion, the consensus knowledge
of the finest minds in the world.  And that person will grow up to do
amazing things.

That's what drives me.  And that's what I will see happen, in my
lifetime.

I'm 34 years old now.  I'll be 74 before we're done... except that
we'll never be done, because there will always be more to do.

Whatever we decide here will probably not matter in the long run.  If
a poor decision here slows us down by 2 years or 5 years, then so be it.
I am sure that I will make other poor decisions in the future, which
will slow us down 2 more years, or 5 more years.  That's o.k.  I have
persistence of vision, which will see this thing through.

So, if GNE wants to split away from Nupedia, then I can't stop it.
I've said my piece for peace.  I've given my reasons, and tried to
answer every objection.

Now it is time for other people to make their own decisions, and for us
all to move forward in a spirit of friendship and passion for the project
at hand.

--Jimbo

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